Featured Artist: Newsboys
Newsboys have a long history dating back to starting out in Australia in 1985. Now on their 15th studio album they have been one of the most popular and long running Christian music artists of the last two decades.
The original members of the band were bassist Sean Taylor, vocalist John James and drummer Peter Fuler and were originally called The News but once they moved to the United States they changed their name to The Newsboys so as not to get mixed up with US band Huey Lewis and the News. The band signed to Refuge Communications in 1988 and released their first album 'Read All About It'.
The early nighties brought two more album releases, 'Hell Is For Wimps' and 'Boys Will Be Boyz'. During this time the band had limited success and the line up of the band changed with every release. It was during the release of 1992's 'Not Ashamed' that Newsboys started to be noticed in the Christian music scene. During this time Peter Fuler took over shared vocal duties with frontman John James.
1994 was the year of the album 'Going Public' which produced the singles 'Shine' and 'Let it Rain'. Shine went on to win the 1995 Dove Award for 'Rock Recorded Song of the Year. 1995 saw the release of 'Take Me To Your Leader' and the expansion of the band into a 6 member band with new additions of Phil Joel and Jeff Frankenstein, again this album spawned many number 1 hits, the biggest being the crowd favourite 'Breakfast'.
Frontman John James announced he would be leaving the band in 1997, this pushed drummer Peter Fuler from drums to vocals and more band members shifted around. The post John James album was the brilliant 'Step Up To The Microphone', which contained the amazing 'Entertaining Angels', which is still Newsboys biggest hit.
From 1999 and 2002 the band released one album in 'Love Liberty Disco' and a greatest hits under the banner 'Shine'. What followed in 2003 and 2004 were two worship albums, 'Adoration : The Worship Album' in 2003 and 'Devotion' in 2004. These albums put Newsboys back on the Christian music map, with great popular worship songs performed in the style we have come to love from this band.
After more line up changes, the band released another studio album titled 'Go' in 2006 and then 'Go Remixed' in 2007, which was an album full of new versions of the songs previously release on the album in 2006.
Another Greatest hits and Live album was released in 2007 and 2008, the live album contained tracks recorded while on their 'Go Tour'. But soon to come were more line up changes, in 2009 Paul Coleman announced he would be leaving the band to work on solo projects at the same time as Jody Davis said he would return to the band after a 5 year hiatus. Then Peter Fuler who had toured with the band since 1985 decided to step back into a support role continuing as the bands primary songwriter and producer.
A new vocalist was needed as the band were about to release already recorded 'In The Hands of God'. They found an amazing singer in ex DC-Talk singer Michael Tait who took on the reigns of vocal duties for the band.
Which leads us to the present day where the band are releasing their latest album called 'Born Again', the first studio album featuring vocals from Michael Tait. The Newsboys are back and are our Artist of The Month.
